+
EDITOR’S QUESTION
MARK BRIDGER,
SVP, EUROPE,
OPENTEXT
“
/////////////////
HUMANS WILL
CONTINUE TO PLAY
A LARGE, BUT
MORE SATISFYING
ROLE IN THE UK
JOB MARKET.”
A
rtificial Intelligence, robot
technology and Machine Learning
are automating jobs and bringing
sweeping social change. With many UK
organisations seeing digital technology
as a key strategy to remain competitive,
there can be no denying that every job in
every industry will soon be impacted by
developments in AI – and we’ll swiftly see
the impact of this boost across UK business.
We’re already seeing automation move from
the auto manufacturer’s floor to the legal
office, the writer’s desk, the surgeon’s table
and beyond. While Sci-Fi films can distort the
impact of AI technology, it’s time to stop
viewing AI as a threat to employment. AI
technology will transform the workplace as
repetitive or low value jobs are digitalised
through robotics and process automation.
However, this disruption is not something we
should fear. AI and automation will improve
productivity across all industries.
In fact, we recently surveyed 2,000 UK
consumers to uncover the extent to which
they believe AI and robot technology
www.intelligentcio.com
will impact aspects of their workplace in
the future. The survey revealed growing
optimism towards AI, with over one third
(35%) of UK consumers stating that they
would feel comfortable working alongside
a robot, while almost a quarter (23%)
would actively encourage their employer
to hire robot colleagues if it would mean a
reduction in their day-to-day admin tasks. from OpenText to enable their legal teams
to spend more time prosecuting economic
crime instead of sifting through mountains
of data. Human employees were capable of
reviewing 300 documents per day. Now, the
organisation has automated this process to
review 600,000 documents per day, allowing
employees to work smarter, faster and focus
on key elements of their investigations.
From a productivity perspective, we spend a
third of our time in the workplace collecting
and processing data. AI and robotics could
all but eliminate this work, freeing us up
from time-consuming administration and
allowing us to focus on other more creative
or rewarding aspects of our jobs. For
example, the UK Serious Fraud Office is using
an AI-powered document review system Technology will radically change the sort of
roles we all do – it always has – but it cannot
replace people. Instead, AI technology can
work alongside humans to boost business
productivity and make employees’ lives
easier. While some processes may be turned
over to machines, humans will continue to
play a large, but more satisfying role in the
UK job market. n
INTELLIGENTCIO
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